Sunday, July 20, 2008

Knife Crime will never be solved .....

Knife Crime will never be solved while Western Politicians are in denial about its real cause



A cursory review of only last week makes pale reading. On Thursday, four men were stabbed to death in London and a fifth died after a knife attack in West Bromwich. On Friday, a 16-year-old youth was found guilty of murdering schoolboy Martin Dinnegan.

On Sunday 13th July, a man in his 30s was brutally stabbed to death at a pub in Bolton. A week earlier, the bodies of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23, were found with a total of 243 stab wounds to the head, neck and chest before being set alight.

Government’s Response

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith ‘somewhat unveiled’ plans to shock young people who carry knives into a greater awareness of the impact of stabbing on victims and making them visit stab victims in hospital. However, she then ‘retracted’ her unveiled plans after Cameron made mockery, “The concept that you have been stabbed and you are in hospital and you are going to be visited by knife criminals”, he said, had Smith retracting in haste.

Gordon Browns mantra over the last few days insisted that his knife crime crackdown would focus on “prevention, enforcement and punishment.” Just as Smiths predecessor not long ago, then Home Secretary Charles Clarke said in the spring of 2006, “Tackling knife culture, especially among young people, is paramount to the safety of our communities, and I am determined to reduce the devastation caused by knife crime”.

The reality is that despite such ‘tough rhetoric’ government initiatives have varied:

- a £3m ‘shock campaign’ against knife crime using graphic images of real injuries inflicted
- increased penalty for carrying knives,
- televised courts,
- knife amnesty,
- primary school children taught about the dangers of knives


The picture shows parliamentary attendance at a recent knife debate.

Asking the Right Questions, Getting the Right Answers!


As Muslims, it is interesting to observe the inconsistency with which the media and politicians address this issue as compared to “Female Genital Mutilation”. In the latter case they will link the discussion to the values underpinning the behaviour, which in their view is the Islamic values and practices, despite the fact that Muslims assert that it is a limited cultural practice and not linked to Islam at all.

Yet when it comes to the subject of knife crime there is little talk about offending values. This is a stark illustration of a society that clings to visions of the superiority of its values and therefore proceeds in a state of denial and self-delusion about its approach to crime and the legal system.

The most important issue is always that the real disease which creates this cancer is never addressed by society or politicians (hence, never solved); the western values of freedom, individualism, materialism, benefit and hedonism. These are the real root causes of ills be it rampant knife/gun crime, criminality, anti-social behaviour, thuggery, corporate exploitation and greed, all rife in today’s ‘modern and civilized 21st century British society’.

These are the values which the west seeks to export to the world. Pure self gratification on the misery of others, is no different to what Britain is engaged in internationally. Seeking out its interests and those of its corporate financial backers at the misery of the developing nations. Just take a cursory view towards Iraq, Afghanistan and the current world economic woes. These are the true fruits and a reflection of its value system nationally and internationally.

It is high time society asked the real questions. The knife problem of today or the gun culture of ‘yesterday’, bankrupt western values are at the heart of these endemic problems facing western societies.

The Shariah and Knife Crime

Fundamentally, the Islamic belief and governance is directed by revelation from Allah (swt) the Creator of man. Islam seeks to balance the rights of the individual to choice with the protection of others and society as a whole.

Islam teaches values of honesty, decency, kindness, mercy, and charity while western capitalist liberal societies teach no values. They simply teach freedom which lacks cohesive values for society. Islam reinforces these values with an expectation of decency in all public conduct and advocates responsibility of accounting on ones peers in society while in the West the lack of cohesive values and strident individualism means there is little societal pressure.

Allah (swt) states in the Qur’an, “And we have revealed to you our Scripture so follow it…and do not follow their desires away from the truth which has come unto you.” [TMQ 5:48-49]

In another ayat, He (swt) states, “And it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not.” [TMQ 2: 216]

Islam further reinforces decency in public life with strong sentences for crimes in order to protect society from falling into moral decline. While the sentences are a strong deterrent the threshold for proof is generally much higher than the in West. The West tries to legislate to fill the vacuum of values and the legal system grinds to a halt.

Thus, these few verses from the Qur’an clearly demonstrate how Islam inculcates the mentality and outlook of people and society from childhood through to adolescence based upon its values of good and bad being defined by the Creator, responsibility, accountability, purpose of life and creation, heaven and hell and which gives human beings not only value to their existence, but a purpose and a system to live by.

Knife related crime is not a problem known as ‘110,000 problematic families’, but it’s a problem that has roots in the very core value system and beliefs the society is built upon.

Without readdressing this individualistic and materialistic system which views indiscriminate colossal loss of human life whether on the streets of Britain or in Iraq with glee, due to individual benefit or corporate profiteering, the problem is very far from being resolved.

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